System and method for utilizing audio encoding for measuring media exposure with environmental masking

A method for measuring and communicating media exposure, comprising the steps of:

• receiving media data in a user device, said media data comprising audio data;
• obtaining first characteristic data from the media data in the user device;
• sampling at least a portion of the audio data in the user device, wherein the sampled portion is processed in the user device to be subsequently formed as an audio signature;
• generating predetermined sound in the user device in response to receiving the media data, wherein the sound comprises environmental audio;
• encoding the sound with second characteristic data;
• and
• transmitting the encoded sound to a remote location for media exposure processing

A method for measuring media exposure in a processing system, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving first characteristic data related to data that was accessed at a user device;
• receiving second characteristic data related to the media data, the second characteristic data being different from the first characteristic data, wherein said second characteristic data is formed from previous acoustic encoding performed on an environmental sound generated at the user device in response to the user device accessing the data;
• and
• correlating the first and second characteristic data to determine a level of media exposure.